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The SEC laid out a draft of its strategic plan for the next four years, but appeared to back away from the possibility that U.S. companies would one day file financial reports under International Financial Reporting Standards.

Over 100 countries use International Financial Reporting Standards, but as more countries consider adopting those accounting rules, the foundation that oversees them is taking stock for the first time of how they are being applied and enforced.

In a report on Tuesday, the IFRS Foundation, which oversees the London-based International Accounting Standards Board, studied 66 jurisdictions for information about how IFRS is being used there. The group found that 55 of those jurisdictions are requiring the use of IFRS for all, or almost all, public companies. An additional study of 50 to 60 more countries is planned.

Former Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz is out with a memoir this week of his years as an accountant and running the U.S. accounting standard setter from 2002 through 2010.

Central to his time at FASB was the issue of convergence, which faces an uncertain future after the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to make a decision last year on whether to move fully toward the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards.

In a speech in Australia on Friday, he said it’s not in the best interest of U.S. or global investors for the IASB and U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board to spend another ten years making minor tweaks to accounting rules to get them exactly the same.

International accounting standards are in line wtih U.S. standards, if comment letters from U.S. regulators are any indication.

Letters from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to foreign issuers filing under International Financial Reporting Standards address substantially the same types of issues, such as requesting more clarity on financial instruments, financial statement presentation, impairments , joint ventures and revenue recognition, as the regulator commonly sends to U.S.-based issuers, indicating that non-U.S. filers face many of the same issues with IFRS as U.S.-based companies with U.S. GAAP.

Trustees of the organization overseeing U.S. accounting rule makers said on Tuesday that they support a plan by the Securities and Exchange Commission to incorporate International Financial Reporting Standards into U.S. accounting rules. However, they advocated a more measured approach that would allow the U.S. to maintain authority over its accounting rules.

In a comment letter to the SEC, the Financial Accounting Foundation said pursuing a single, global set of high-quality accounting rules was a “worthy objective” and laid out how it thought FASB should work with the International Accounting Standards Board:

The Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board is throwing her weight behind the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s “condorsement” plan that would have the U.S. incorporate International Financial Reporting Standards into U.S. GAAP over several years.

The International Accounting Standards Board is redoubling its efforts to get the U.S. to commit to international accounting rules.

At an accounting conference in Boston on Wednesday, two top officials from the London-based accounting rule-maker warned of disastrous consequences if the U.S. chooses not to make the switch from U.S. GAAP to International Financial Reporting Standards. U.S. investors could suffer from weaker standards, and in the long run, the U.S. would lose its considerable influence on international rulemaking, they said.

When SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in June that investors aren’t clamoring for International Financial Reporting Standards, she may have been understating things… a bit. Now, some of the biggest U.S. investor groups are letting the SEC know in no uncertain terms that it should postpone its decision on IFRS and even stop the convergence process between U.S. GAAP and IFRS.

A leading organization representing U.S. accountants argued Wednesday that regulators should stop short of requiring that U.S. companies adopt international accounting rules. In another sign that the momentum behind International Financial Reporting Standards is fading in the United States, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants wants U.S. companies to simply be given the option of using those rules.